*John Amos has disclosed that his life nearly ended while vying for the role of Kunta Kinte in the “Roots” miniseries.
In an interview with the Television Academy nearly a decade ago, Amos reminisced about pursuing the role and the peril it brought him as he perfected an African accent.
I Love Old School Music reports that Amos said, “I knew I had the handle on it [the African accent], not because of ego, but one time when I was living in Liberia I was out drinking with some friends of mine –local guys– and we went to one of the local shebeens, which is just a bar in somebody’s house where they make homemade brew or whatever. And my friend, Charles Mitchell –an indigenous Liberian– said to me, ‘John!’ I said ‘What Charles?’ …I had my back to the crowd…Charles is facing me and I see a look of alarm on his face. ‘I said ‘Charles what’s wrong?!!’ He said, ‘Oh John, one bad guy [with a machete] coming for us.’ I said, ‘WHAT?!!’”
The “Good Times’ star continued, … “ and there’s a guy, [he] gets up from the table and sure enough he’s got his machete out, and he’s with two or three of his friends –and they’ve got they’re machetes or clubs. … The guy looked at me and said, ‘I know you! I told you when you were in Bowman Hill Diamond Mine, that I coming for you one day and now the day!’”
Amos clarified that the individual had wrongly identified him as a former security guard who mistreated him during his time as a captive worker at a diamond mine.
“This guy (the security guard) had mistreated him so bad that he’d vowed he was gonna cut his head off,” Amos added. “He said ‘Now I’m coming for your head!’ I said, ‘Woah! Wait one minute buddy!’ … [I] dropped the accent, pulled out my wallet, pulled out my California [license] *gesturing to himself* this is ME, I’m just a player!’”
John continued, “So the question of ‘whether or not I had the right accent’ wasn’t up for discussion, it almost got me KILLED! LOL.”
Watch John Amos recount the harrowing moment in the clip below.
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